rent modes of actions, or functions, of that universal, eternal,
and divine Central Power of the universe, which is beyond the
conception of mortals, and which the latter call _God_.

The ancient religions, as well as reason and logic, tell us that there
is, and can be, only one supreme God, or First Cause of the universe,
and that from this one first and fundamental Cause or Power every
secondary power and everything that exists has come into existence, or
been evolved within it and through its eternal activity. The whole of
the universe with everything contained therein, man included, is and
can be nothing else but a manifestation of this internal fundamental
power, or, as it has been expressed by the ancient philosophers, the
universe is the product of the Divine Imagination (thought) of the
First Great Cause, thrown into objectivity by its eternal Will.

We see, therefore, the great unmanifested _One_ manifesting itself in
its own _Substance_ (Space) by means of _two_ powers, _Thought_
(imagination) and _Will_ (the _Word_ or Life); both powers being
fundamentally identical and merely two different modes of activity or
functions of the _One_ Eternal, internal Principle, called God.
According to the _Bible_, God said, "Let there be light," and through
the power of this outspoken "_Word_," the world came into existence.
This allegory, expressed in modern language, means that by the
_active_ Will of the universal First Cause, the images existing in its
eternal memory were thrown into objectivity and thus produced the
germs from which the worlds with all things existing therein were
evolved and grew into the shapes in which we see them now. The
_Brahmins_ say that when _Brahm_ awoke from his slumber after the
night of creation (the great Pralaya) was over, he _breathed out_ of
his own substance, and thus the evolution of worlds began. If he
_in-breathes_ again, the worlds will be re-absorbed in his substance,
and the day of creation will be over.

[God being essentially and self-evidently inconceivable by man,
all attempts of Brahmin, Christian, or any other theologians to
explain his existence and his methods of creation can be
recognized by the scientific mind only as hypotheses
unsusceptible of verification, and, therefore, incapable of
becoming a proper basis of Philosophy.]

Thus we find, on examining the doctrines of all the greatest religions
of the world, that they all teach the same t